ABSTRACT
Missile defence and international arms control highlight both the promise and pitfalls of Australia-Japan-United States trilateralism in international security. All three countries have mutual and overlapping interests when it comes to both issues, and, in fact, non-proliferation was listed as one of the topics for discussion in the ministerial-level Trilateral Strategic Dialogue held in March 2006. But getting beyond the usual generalities and vague diplomatic statements to craft truly trilateral approaches to arms control and especially missile defence will be much harder. It is particularly difficult for these countries to attempt to inject trilateralism into military issues, given such restrictions as Japan’s ban on collective defence and Australia’s unique, geographically determined defence requirements. At the same time, whereas Australia, Japan, and the United States may share many common goals when it comes to international arms control, the best forums for dealing with these issues would appear to be even more multilateral. So while trilateralism may succeed in pushing Australia-Japan-United States cooperation on broad security issues further down the road, it does not seem to have much effect on such specific military and defence issues as missile defence and international arms control.
